Manage Your MythTV Box Remotely Using NX

6. December 2009Pablo Garcia2 comments

 

Tired of dealing with MythTV’s xfce tiny fonts, Bad TV resolution, cumbersome or non existent remote controls, or you simply want to manage your MythTV box remotely (i.e. from work, or on vacation) Then this article is for you.
For those of you not familiar with NX, the best way I can describe it is that, it is similar to a Windows Remote Desktop or VNC connection but considerably faster. I specifically wrote this article because I needed do have complete control over my MythTV box remotely and not be limited to what MythTV’s web interface offered. I could not find any information on the web on how to accomplish this with NX and I definitely did not want to do it with VNC because there is considerable lag. All I was able to find was information on how to configure NX with XFCE (or Xubuntu), witch even though it helped a little it did not provide a complete solution to the Mythbuntu – NX scenario. For this article I am using Mythbuntu version 9.10 Karmic Koala for the server and Ubuntu Linux for the Client OS however the configuration will be exactly the same for a Windows NX client or any other OS capable of running the NX client.

Ubuntu VPN Connection for Dummies

28. November 2009Pablo Garcia7 comments

 

Connecting to your Microsoft PPTP VPN server at work can be critical for those who find themselves working from home from time to time.  Personally, this single issue kept me from getting rid on my dual-boot Ubuntu-Windows setup, until I found a solution.
Yes, configuring your Ubuntu VPN could be a pretty frustrating task. For once Linux does not have a VPN Client configuration wizard like Windows does. In addition Linux is not able to detect and add routes automatically as Windows does and inexplicably practically all Ubuntu VPN tutorials on the web do not explain this. That is why I have written this walkthrough.

Why is my computer slow? – Causes and Solutions

27. May 2009Pablo Garcia2 comments

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Why is my computer slow? Being a computer professional I cannot remember how many times I’ve been asked this question. It is probably the #1 question in the computer world, and just as other common questions this one does not have only one answer. A wide variety of conditions can cause a computer to lose speed over time. Most of these conditions can be resolved by any user with little computer knowledge. In this article I will list most causes and solutions to this common problem, making you aware of things you probably never realized and guiding you by the hand to help you get the most out of your computer.

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The Ultimate List of Uses for Old Computers

30. March 2008Pablo Garcia5 comments

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Are you wondering what to do with that old computer? Well, I will start by skipping the usual… I will not talk about the obvious uses which you probably already know like: "Sell it on eBay", "Cannibalize it", "Give it to the Kids", “Donate it”, “Recycle it” etc. If you wanted to do any of those you wouldn’t be reading this article in the first place, would you? Or other uses that are simply not practical for 99.9% of us… Like building a cluster… That is, if you have more than one old pc, and are prepared to spend more on electricity than what these computers are worth. I am going to give you real no-nonsense uses, which will save you money, make your life easier, and will be plain fun. I will provide you with links that will help you and not just leave you with empty-handed suggestions. Furthermore, I am limiting the applications involved in these projects to the most important, that way you will not loose time trying software not backed by good community-based support.

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Ten iPod Disadvantages

18. May 2007Pablo Garcia37 comments

Lets face it, the iPod has helped Apple a great deal getting the company were it is today. But is the iPod everything that the company would like us to believe? Mmmm… lets see… Yes, the iPod looks nice, and yes it has good sound quality. Is it the best-looking mp3 player out there? Well, like they say "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". Is it the best sounding one? Who knows… but its hard to believe when there are competitors out there like Sony and Creative, which have excellent sound quality ratings and have been on the sound business for years. Is this another of Apple’s myths? Judge for yourselves…

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How to recover data from a broken hard drive

18. May 2007Pablo Garcia192 comments

If you are reading this article you are probably desperate, but before you panic let me tell you that there is hope, and there is probably more hope than you think…. Even if your hard drive has an internal mechanical malfunction, data can be recovered without having to send the hard drive to a data recovery service. Yes! you heard right, I’m sure you have come across articles that will tell you how to recover data from a damaged partition, you will find a ton of those on the web, but when your hard drive starts malfunctioning none of those articles are going to help you solve your problem, This article will ;)

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Build your own NAS using FreeNAS

30. April 2007Pablo Garcia46 comments

Worrying about a bunch of external drives, on your floor that you inadvertedly stumble upon and kick? Tired of wasting time looking for data, not knowing in which drive it resides? Tired of having to transport these drives from computer instead of having them accessible to all computers all the time? Have you been thinking of buying a NAS but the available choices do not meet your criteria for Data Safety, Space Utilization, Cooling, etc? or, if they do they are not on your price range? If you answered yes to any of those questions or you are looking for an entertaining project, then this article is definitely for you. This article will teach you how to build your own RAID 5, 1-terabyte NAS (Network Attached Storage) using very reliable and inexpensive components.

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